For people with diabetes, successful management requires monitoring the effects lifestyle changes can have in both short-term and long-term time frames. Regular testing of their blood glucose level can be an important part of diabetes management as a way to track changes throughout the day. For example, portable handheld medical diagnostic devices are often employed to measure concentrations of biologically significant components of bodily fluids, such as, for example, glucose concentration in blood. To test glucose with a glucose meter, a small sample of blood may be placed on a disposable test strip. The portable handheld glucose meter may include a strip port that receives the disposable test strip. The test strip may be coated with chemicals (glucose oxidase, dehydrogenase, or hexokinase) that combine with glucose in blood allowing it to measure the concentration of glucose in the blood sample. The portable handheld glucose meter then displays the glucose concentration as a number (or glucose measurement value). As a result, the portable handheld medical diagnostic devices and their accessories may work together to measure the amount of glucose in blood and be used to monitor glucose levels in one's home, healthcare facility or other location, for example, by persons having diabetes or by a healthcare professional.
Patients and healthcare professionals may thereby track and analyze glucose measurements over a period of time to assess changes in the patient over the course of a day, week or other desirable timeframe. In other examples, some healthcare professionals may instruct a patient to obtain glucose measurements several times a day over a course of a few consecutive days as part of a test regime or protocol implemented in hopes to observe and assess changes in a patient's physiological condition. For example, the protocol may specify taking blood glucose measurements which correlate to certain eating times, meal types and size, exercising, and so forth.
It is to be appreciated that in conventional glucose meters the results of such glucose measurements are readily viewable by the patient as well as any other data that may be collected by the meter. However, patients following a certain protocol for testing a physiological parameter like glucose and optionally collecting additional information as prescribed by the protocol may change intentionally or unintentionally their behavior when they see the test results. Since such a protocol may be used to assess a certain aspect of a patient's current medical situation, a modification of the patient's behavior while following the protocol may negatively impact the validity of the test results.